Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Georgian citizens living in Russia will not be able to participate in the presidential election to be held on October 27.

"Unfortunately, our citizens living in Russia will not be able to participate in the elections, due to the fact that we open the polling stations abroad on the basis of the information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," head of the International Relations Department of the Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) Eka Azarashvili said.

According to Azarashvili, the CEC provides the opening of polling stations, based on the list of countries provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and due to the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Russia is not listed.

"Russia does not appear in the list of countries in which Georgia has diplomatic missions. Accordingly, we cannot open a polling station there," he emphasized.

As to the exact number of the full legal age Georgian citizens living in Russia, she said that the CEC has no such data, because the CEC receives this information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"I cannot name an exact number of Georgian voters living in Russia, because we receive this information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we have no diplomatic relations with Russia. We had the same situation during the parliamentary elections of 2012," Azarashvili underscored.

Georgia and Russia have maintained no diplomatic relations since a brief war in 2008. Tbilisi broke off relations with Moscow in August 2008 when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over two rebel regions - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - and later recognized the regions.